Premier's Awards 2012

Recent Graduate: Ian Rowberry

Ian Rowberry is passionate about sustainability. As a geography teacher in his native UK, he became increasingly concerned about the health of the planet, and when he moved to Canada and found his UK teaching credentials didn’t move with him, he switched gears to ‘walk his talk’ and embarked on a career as an eco-evangelist. He volunteered at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax for four months before he could convince them to hire him to manage their Steer Clear vehicle retirement program. And while a part of St. Lawrence College’s ESETT program, he founded and was the driving force behind CSI – the Campus Sustainability Initiative – a grassroots group of students, staff, faculty and suppliers, dedicated to improving the College’s environmental practices. His voluntarism and passion lead to his selection as a Garfield Weston Scholar – one of only 25 upper year college students selected in the country. Not only did he receive a full-ride scholarship while in his last year at the College, but the Garfield Weston Foundation also funded his project to give community seminars on achieving sustainability through personal choices.

While a student at SLC he joined the board of SWITCH – the local sustainability group – and through his activism and encouragement, more than quadrupled the number of student members. Upon graduation Ian was immediately hired as a solar designer for a Kingston alternative energy firm, and has remained active in community groups that reflect his values – including a community garden project, and a co-operative daycare initiative. He is currently at work investigating how the cooperative model could be used to fund energy alternatives for low-income Canadians.

Creative Arts:

Kevin House

Visual and Creative Arts – Graphic Design, 1991
Owner, Kevin Creative

Canada may have mourned the loss of its horse in the 2012 Belmont Stakes, but we still had a Canadian presence at the course – the design of St. Lawrence College grad Kevin House.

Kevin’s work – including the logo for the 144th running of the Belmont Stakes – includes illustrations for major U.S. magazines such as MotorTrend, logos for the Vancouver Winter Olympics bid package, and major retailers and corporations on both sides of the border. His secret weapon? A pencil. In a time of digital everything, Kevin House is a design craftsman who engages his clients in the process of creating memorable identities – through sketchbook and pencil. Going out on his own after many years with some of western Canada’s most respected agencies, Kevin is known for what he calls ‘visual explorations’ – many pages of concept drawings that help clients visualize their end product before committing to the industry-standard digital tools. Often called an "illustrative designer”, Kevin brings an illustrator’s eye to his design work, and a designer’s eye to his illustrations. “My illustration style could be described as a combination of clean line and design-influenced imagery with one foot firmly placed in the elegance of the past, often with a dash of humour. I almost always will have a type component in my work. I work digitally in Adobe Illustrator which allows me to create rich and colourful pieces that are small in file size yet infinitely scalable, which appeals to my practical design side.”

He may refer to it as ‘old school’, but Kevin puts the art in graphic arts. He uses his drawing skills not just as a tool to be used to bring an idea to completion, but as an inclusive and accessible medium to bring clients along for the journey. His pencil sketches of a logo concept or editorial illustration engage the viewer to consider the many possibilities a concept can take. In that way, he fosters a deeper understanding between designer and client that makes the client feel part of and take ownership in the process. The result: a more harmonious and collaborative partnership. This process is not only appreciated by those in the non-design world, but by those within his industry who engage his company for illustration work. He is, in short, the illustrator that other designers hire.

Business: Kevin Lalonde

Kevin Lalonde is a global retail and sales executive with a track record of turning under-performing brands around. In 2007 as the COO of eXtra in Saudi Arabia (an electronics retailer) he lead employees to turn around its non-profitable business – resulting in becoming the #1 fastest growing retailer and among the top 25 fastest growing companies in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and 2010. He also created a positive work environment for employees, with eXtra recognized as the “Best Saudi Company to Work For” in 2012. He took another of his clients – Thai Indochine Trading Company – and developed and deployed a 5-yr business plan that doubled revenues by expanding distribution of products into Canada with national retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Loblaws (both former employers). Kevin moved from the supply side with Procter & Gamble upon graduating from SLC, to working for the country’s largest consumer products retailers, before striking out on his own in the global retail marketplace.

Kevin Lalonde’s innovations throughout his career have had major impact not only on his employers/clients, but on business processes globally. He consolidated the disparate services of Bell Canada into a one-stop-shop for retail customers. His simple innovation to print bar codes on the paper hearts donors signed when making a gift to Sick Kids at Loblaws, increased donations from $2,500 to $250,000. That barcode is now industry standard in cause-related marketing. His exposure and experience with marketing to Canada’s multicultural community has easily transferred to his global business – most notably in the Middle East. And his ability to connect his Canadian contacts to his Middle Eastern clients has seen mutual growth in markets and expertise.

Trades and Technology: Mike Jablonicky

Mike Jablonicky is at the forefront of the Wind Energy business, successfully – and simultaneously – overseeing the start-up of two of the province’s biggest wind farms, and was the first person in the province from the sector to work with the Independent Energy Systems Operators, representing the province’s first commercial wind farms. He got his feet wet in the business when he left a well-paying secure position as an industrial electrician to join a small start-up company bidding on the province’s first commercial wind farm: Melancthon 1. His success there led to joining the company –now TransAlta – where he oversaw the installation of both Wolfe Island and Melancthon2. He has stayed on at Wolfe Island, and is credited as not only the first person in the province to run a modern wind farm with in-house maintenance, but to garner global attention as one of the best-run wind farms in the world.

As the lead electrician for the Province’s first commercial wind farm (Melanchton 1, near Shelbourne, Ontario), Mike Jablonicky was at the ground floor as a brand new industry was being built. The negotiations and sharing of information between his office and provincial oversight bodies set in place the baseline for some of the first protocols between commercial operators and Independent Energy Systems Operators – protocols still in use today. Beyond his technical skills, he has also played an important role in increasing the understanding of the industry, choosing to move to Wolfe Island as a permanent resident at a time when the introduction of the 86 turbines was at its most contentious. He believed that people needed a person on the ground to talk to and express their concerns, and five years after moving to the island, he has played host to local, national and international guests who wish to learn more about the business.

Community Service: Terri McDade

Child and Youth Worker, 1979
Dean, Faculty of Arts, St. Lawrence College

Terri McDade may be the Dean of Arts at St Lawrence College, but she is first and foremost, a Child and Youth Worker. In fact, that’s how she introduces herself to students at the beginning of each year, which informs the way she approaches her professional and her community work. She has never stopped being someone who has a passion for helping young people reach their full potential – especially those marginalized by any number of issues. For 22 years she worked at the front lines, first with emotionally disturbed youth at a residential treatment facility, and then as an adolescent care worker in four area high schools. When she took her first role as a full time instructor at SLC, it was to contribute to the next generation of CYWs. She had no idea that only eight years later, she’d be the Dean, and a leading driver on some of the College’s most important initiatives.

Terri is a skilled matchmaker who spends a good portion of her time matching people in need with people who can help. Whether its teacher/student, agency/volunteers or matching resources to a community, Terri doesn’t see them as her achievement – it’s everyone’s. But there’s no denying that when a student group developed a financial literacy program for their fellow college students, Terri saw an opportunity to connect them with the local Children’s Aid Society to deliver this financial literacy program to Crown Wards in the Kingston area. The project is now acting as a blueprint for other jurisdictions. It’s just a small example, but it explains why Terri is SLC’s go-to resource to chair committees as diverse as Academic Policy, First Generation, Space Planning, and the College Management Committee. She’s recognized not only for her effective leadership, but for her strong interpersonal skills gained through years of counselling experience that ensures voices are heard, but that the focus never leaves our students.